Hi guys,

Its good to see so many of the old members are still providing valuable support, experience and knowledge to this group.  It's also great to see that the forum has topped over three thousand members. Well done to the members whose fount of knowledge, advice and wisdom and whose ability to share their experiences in a way that others can relate is the very reason why there has been an increase in members - you are the very people who should be congratulated for enabling this forum to flourish in the way it has.  I'm proud to be a member of this forum and I'm lucky to have made some very very good friends during my journey with alcoholism.

I've had a break from DS, not because I didn't want to help or support those who had began their journey and not because I started to drink again but because no matter how much help you afforded to a particular member they consistantly attacked, abused and brought down the very essence of what this forum is all about.  Lecturing without knowledge, attacking without forgiveness and writing without empowerment.

What we have to remember is that we are all here for the same reason ..... for help, encouragement and to be part of a community of like minded people.  We are hear to discuss our problems, to listen to the experiences of others and to make our lives much happier - for me thats without alcohol.  We need to understand that we are all different, we all have different needs, different commitments and different experiences but if we were to only take ONE good piece of advice from all those members that have taken time out of their day to reply to our posts and put that advice into our own journey to soberiety then surely we are on a positive path to recovery already.  Some of us need a little bit more help in the way of organisations like AA, some of us prefer to do it with one to one counselling and some of us prefer to do it alone. 

Extending your support network from wherever you choose to find it is valuable but its not invaluable and what I mean by that is we are not here to preach. We are not here to judge and we most certainly are not here to criticise others for the choices they make.  We have to remember that many members on this forum have been sober for many years by doing it alone, others have needed that little bit more but so long as the end result is continued abstinence then in my opinion that's a win and something to be proud of.

So, I've had my break, I've forgiven that member for their despondency and I'm back to support and offer any help that I can, I'm also looking forward to getting to know some of the new(er) members.

Much love

JF